Not everyone is born knowing what they were made to do in this world, and that’s okay. As little kids, we all had dreams about the things that we wanted to do, and the people we wanted to be, but growing up had a way of changing reality for us. It’s not until we hit college age that we really have to consider the areas in life our expertise will be learned in, but this doesn’t mean we have to stop being curious and testing life out.

I think a lot of the perception about college is that everyone needs to pick a career path, and while it’s true that you have to pick an area of study, I think that college is a lot more flexible than people assume. There’s room for trial and error, which is something I have grown to love and hope everyone else does too. But I understand the frustration in the unknown, I myself have been unable to decisively pick a career path for some time now- but I still have faith that everything will fall into place and I will choose something that I really love doing.

Before I went to college, I struggled to find my niche, find what I was really good at. I like to think that there were several areas that I performed well in academically, but nothing that sparked a true passion in me. One of the most exciting components about college to me was that you could explore different majors, and test out different classes, and try to find something that you like. And that’s why I went in blindly to my major at UConn.

I know this sounds crazy, but when I applied to schools, I picked many different subjects for the ‘intent to study’ area on applications, because it didn’t matter to me at that point anyway. When I was applying to UConn, I selected the Psychology area of study because it was something that I had never studied before, and figured I would try my hand at the major. I believe that this blind choice depicts how desperate I was at the time to find something that I would be interested in, and still struggle with today. Eventually, I ended up picking UConn based on its academic integrity and the campus, not because of my direct interest in the Psychology program.

And I still think that it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made to date. In each of my Psychology classes, I’m learning new information every day- exploring new concepts and ideas that I’ve never been exposed to before. And I know that this is a leap of faith, but it’s totally worth the shot for anyone who doesn’t know where their path lies for a career. I think it’s important to go explore, and to find things out about yourself. Learn about your strengths and weaknesses by taking risks with your classes. But don’t limit yourself to just classes- go try out clubs and extracurriculars, meet some new people, and gain some perspective. College is a place where you have the opportunity to completely reinvent yourself and don’t have to impress anyone. Along the way you’re going to make a lot of mistakes, and take a lot of wrong turns, but in the end it’s all a learning experience.

So I hope that you know what your passions are in life, but at the same time, know that this isn’t a must. Nobody needs to have a life plan set out before them while in college, because there’s a lot of wiggle room and there are going to be experiences that you will have that might change your beliefs and perceptions about things. Maybe it’ll be something minor like joining a club you hadn’t thought about before, or something major, like a career. Whatever your decisions are, understand that there is freedom in choice and you have the right to exercise it always.